Survey: LGBT Boomers Need More LTC Info

By Staff Writer

November 28, 2006 at 12:28 PM

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Members of the U.S. lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community tend to have a strong interest in long term care but low awareness of long term care insurance.

Researchers at the MetLife Mature Market Institute, Westport, Conn., an affiliate of MetLife Inc., New York, have published data on the LGBT LTC insurance market in a summary of results from a recent survey of 1,000 U.S. LGBT adults ages 40 to 61.

About 31% of the survey participants said they have annual household incomes over $100,000, and about 25% already are providing care for adult friends or relatives, researchers report.

This compares with a caregiving rate of just 21% for the general population, researchers note.

But the researchers found that 50% of participants mistakenly believe that conventional health insurance will pay for long term care, and 47% believe Medicare will pay for long term care, the researchers report.

Only 25% of the participants expect to use LTC insurance to pay for care, and only 15% of the participants said they have actually bought LTC insurance, the researchers write.

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